1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to compact, manually operable apparatus for cutting individual scenes from a strip of photographic film and mounting the same in frames for subsequent viewing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, when a photographer wants his transparency prints mounted in frames suitable for use in a projector, he sends them to a commerical establishment where they are put on an assembly line similar to that shown in British Pat. No. 1,382,895. There, sections of the film are severed, placed in frames or holders which are then sealed and moved to a bin from which they are taken and hopefully matched with the correct customer's order form for subsequent mailing to the customer.
Another type of apparatus for cutting and mounting sections of an elongate strip of film is shown in British Pat. No. 1,510,249. In this apparatus, an end of the film strip is partially inserted between apertured base and cover portions of a frame at a severing or cutting station, the base and cover portions having been spread apart to form a gap into which the end of the film strip is inserted. The film strip is then severed and the severed section and the slide frame are transported together along a path so that a corner of the severed section engages and slides along a slot in a surface of a guide member located adjacent said path. The surface of the guide member forms an acute angle with said path of travel to thus cause the severed section to move transversely of the path of travel to its desired position within the frame. A disadvantage with this type of apparatus is that the end of the severed section located in engagement with the guide member may buckle due to the increasing frictional forces being applied to the remainder of the severed section by the base and cover portions of the frame as the severed section is moved to its desired position within the frame.
Still another type of apparatus is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,992,243, wherein the upper and lower portions of a frame are separated from each other so as to enable an end of a film strip to be located on the lower portion of the frame. The end of the film strip is then severed and the upper portion of the frame is moved into engagement with the severed section of the film while integral projections on the lower portion are received by corresponding apertures located in the upper portion of the frame for securing the two portions together. The relative complexity and resulting cost of the mechanism for opening and closing the upper portion of the frame while maintaining the proper spatial relation between the two portions of the frame detracts from its use by one who wishes to mount his own exposures.
The photographer may buy his own frames and do the mounting himself with an apparatus similar to that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,085,618. In this apparatus a section of a film strip is aligned with an aperture in a male die and a card having an aperture therein is located in alignment with the section of film to be severed. A lever is then depressed which, in turn, drives the male die forward first severing the film strip in two places and then advances the severed portion into contact with an adhesive sheet which extends over at least a portion of the aperture in the card. One must then remove the card from the apparatus and trim it to a size which is compatible with a slide tray or a projector. Even then the resulting product suffers in comparison to that received from the commercial establishment. For example, since the severed section is in effect laminated onto the sheet, it can readily be seen that if the adhesive bond therebetween subsequently fails along an edge thereof, this edge may be hung up as the card is being moved into and/or out of its exposure position within the projector. Further, since the adhesive sheet extends over at least a portion of the aperture in the card, there will be a problem in projecting that portion of the image in the severed section which is in engagement with the adhesive sheet.
An example of an inexpensive, compact, manually operable apparatus for cutting and mounting a portion of a visible image is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,003. This apparatus is ideally suited for use on top of a bench or table and includes a cutting section at which a photograph is positioned such that a portion of its visible image may be cropped and then severed. The severed portion is then advanced through an open end in a frame to its desired position within the frame. While this apparatus has many desirable features, it is not readily adaptable to use with an elongate strip of film.